Organized Sports

Dear Bill:The antics occurring in organized sports for kids are amazing. Organized sports originally were intended to take the place of playing informally in the neighborhood. However, as adults are becoming more involved, the innocence of the children and the game are being lost. Initially, the intention of leagues was to afford our children the opportunity to enjoy a particular sport while becoming a viable member of a team.Parents banded together to provide facilities and knowledge to help their children further their skills.

The other day, from the sidelines, I watched myself spin and swing. A baseball stood undisturbed on the tee, mocking me with each breezy swing. I hadn't breached some Star Trekian space-time continuum-thingy or secretly perfected human cloning. Rather, with my son's T-ball debut -- his first foray into organized sports -- I surfed through time, dusting off gilded dreams with each clump of dirt dredged up by my 5-year-old's cleats. For a moment, I was 7 again, marveling at the exploits of Roberto Clemente, the Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder who died in a plane crash while delivering humanitarian aid. Fancying myself his heir, I patrolled the outfield in a golden Pirates jersey, snagging flies, gunning down baserunners who dared test my howitzer arm. Remembering hanging up my cleats and golden jersey, reluctantly, as my bowling average was higher than my batting average.

Let me tell you what the world of organized sports for kids is really about. It's not what was described by Chris Monte Carlo's recent My Word on the subject.I am deeply involved in Little League. In addition to serving as the vice president of the minor division of Pine Castle Little League, I am a certified umpire of District 3, a concession stand worker, a ground crew member, a past and future coach of T-ball and Little League teams, and a concerned parent of two boys who play Little League.

What with corporate CEO scandals breaking out like a new strain of financial flu, this is either the best or worst of times for a book entitled Leadership Secrets of the World's Most Successful CEOs (Dearborn). Whether you want to accept these "secrets" as worthwhile tips or scams hidden inside a Martha Stewart meatloaf is up to you. But the secrets are timely nationally and also locally as new Magic GM John Weisbrod is going to need all the leadership tricks he can find. What fascinates me, however, are the results of a survey of 208 Fortune 1000 CEOs conducted by the book's author, Eric Yaverbaum, president of Jericho Communications, a New York public relations firm.

As the crowd screamed at the forlorn 5-year-old who ran to third base instead of first after hitting the ball off the ''T,'' I asked myself, ''What in the world are we doing to these kids?''The time and intentions that coaches and parents devote seem more for their personal satisfaction than the youngsters'. I wonder: What exactly is the best way to teach baseball skills to young kids, especially at the pre-school level? Are we teaching kids what they need to know about life and each other?

CLERMONT -- A golf outing raised $25,000 for the South Lake County YMCA. The Gem of the Hills golf tournament at the Diamond Players Club in June is the group's largest fund raiser. The money goes toward scholarships for anyone who is unable to afford classes and programs at the YMCA. "We don't turn any child away," said YMCA marketing director Bashia Schlazer. The agency provides organized sports and programs such as tae kwon do and cheerleading for thousands of residents every year.

Our original topic: The Hanson Brothers Should Be Ripped To Shreds By Rabid Wolverines will be postponed so that we can talk about groin protection.Recently, 12-year-old baseball catcher Melissa Raglin was benched because she refused to wear a protective cup made for boys.Melissa had been playing in the Boca Raton Babe Ruth League for two years without being questioned about the contents of her pants. Then, all of a sudden, once her team made it to the playoffs, an umpire decided it was time to get tough about The Rules.

Tara Scanlon has seen a lot while researching stress in children's sports. She has seen the worried ice skater who couldn't get through a 3 1/2- minute routine, the expectant wrestler who was a basket case before he ever hit the mat, the overwrought soccer player who considered herself a failure for losing a single match. She has seen all the mind games kids play at the behest of our sports-crazed society.All of us have heard about Little League fathers and mothers, coaches who believe that winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.

With the number of high school girls playing sports at an all-time high, one might expect women's sports advocates to be ecstatic.But they're not.With cash-strapped youth agencies cutting programs and more parents unable to afford sports activities for their children, supporters worry fewer girls are being introduced to sports.Raising awareness of such problems - and finding solutions for them - were paramount at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Summit, held Saturday at the Grosvenor Resort in Orlando.

Gary swears baseball has saved his life.Without it, says the sophomore at Orlando's Cypress Creek High School, he would have continued breaking into people's homes and robbing tourists. ''I would have gotten right back into it and ended up dead,'' he said.Gary, who didn't want his last name used because he's trying to get a fresh start, was arrested in May for a string of burglaries in south Orange County. Today, he is on probation, back in school and playing on a teen baseball team he believes is keeping him ''off drugs and out of trouble.

WOODWARD, Pa. -- Every year, thousands of scruffy youths from around the world flock to this remote village in central Pennsylvania that has more Amish buggy crossings than street lights. They come wearing baggy pants, Vans shoes and rings dangling from their noses. They blare hip-hop and punk rock music from their boom boxes, but they don't bring cell phones. The town is so secluded, it's almost impossible to get reception. What brings them here, to the middle of nowhere, a place with a population of 126, where the one grocery store in the next town over has a hitching post for horses?

CLERMONT -- A golf outing raised $25,000 for the South Lake County YMCA. The Gem of the Hills golf tournament at the Diamond Players Club in June is the group's largest fund raiser. The money goes toward scholarships for anyone who is unable to afford classes and programs at the YMCA. "We don't turn any child away," said YMCA marketing director Bashia Schlazer. The agency provides organized sports and programs such as tae kwon do and cheerleading for thousands of residents every year.

KISSIMMEE - The children who frequent Chambers Park Neighborhood Center have lost a friend and mentor.Robert L. Sippio Sr., who ran after-school and weekend programs for local children, was fired by the city this week for falsifying time sheets.Sippio, who played football for St. Cloud High School before graduating in 1980, now has a son who is a quarterback for Osceola High School. In order to watch his son play Friday night games last year, Sippio left Chambers during his scheduled hours but his time sheets showed him working at the neighborhood center.

Our original topic: The Hanson Brothers Should Be Ripped To Shreds By Rabid Wolverines will be postponed so that we can talk about groin protection.Recently, 12-year-old baseball catcher Melissa Raglin was benched because she refused to wear a protective cup made for boys.Melissa had been playing in the Boca Raton Babe Ruth League for two years without being questioned about the contents of her pants. Then, all of a sudden, once her team made it to the playoffs, an umpire decided it was time to get tough about The Rules.

With the number of high school girls playing sports at an all-time high, one might expect women's sports advocates to be ecstatic.But they're not.With cash-strapped youth agencies cutting programs and more parents unable to afford sports activities for their children, supporters worry fewer girls are being introduced to sports.Raising awareness of such problems - and finding solutions for them - were paramount at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Summit, held Saturday at the Grosvenor Resort in Orlando.

It was early Saturday morning, and there was much to be done before the legions of little ones arrived at the old Clermont High School football field.Allen Powell, director of the South Lake YMCA, arranged shirts of red, green, blue and yellow in piles to give out to each of the teams of 4- to 8-year-olds who represented the first wave of the day's participants.On the field, volunteers Todd Riffle and Tom Griffin were busy creating the chalk boundaries for two miniature football fields.Boys and girls began arriving and making short work of the piles of shirts.

What with corporate CEO scandals breaking out like a new strain of financial flu, this is either the best or worst of times for a book entitled Leadership Secrets of the World's Most Successful CEOs (Dearborn). Whether you want to accept these "secrets" as worthwhile tips or scams hidden inside a Martha Stewart meatloaf is up to you. But the secrets are timely nationally and also locally as new Magic GM John Weisbrod is going to need all the leadership tricks he can find. What fascinates me, however, are the results of a survey of 208 Fortune 1000 CEOs conducted by the book's author, Eric Yaverbaum, president of Jericho Communications, a New York public relations firm.

Girls have it tougher.So say researchers who already knew this, inasmuch as they are women, but apparently felt they had to prove it statistically so that others - and we know who they are - would believe it.The research findings have been published in a book - Meeting at the Crossroads: Women's Psychology and Girls' Development - by Lyn Mikel Brown and Carol Gilligan.The book summarizes five years of study of girls ages 6 to 18. In an interview with People magazine, Brown summed up their findings: ''Girls learn to silence their own ideas and ignore their own instincts when they come up against what we call the wall of Western culture.

Gary swears baseball has saved his life.Without it, says the sophomore at Orlando's Cypress Creek High School, he would have continued breaking into people's homes and robbing tourists. ''I would have gotten right back into it and ended up dead,'' he said.Gary, who didn't want his last name used because he's trying to get a fresh start, was arrested in May for a string of burglaries in south Orange County. Today, he is on probation, back in school and playing on a teen baseball team he believes is keeping him ''off drugs and out of trouble.

As happens in this business occasionally, when you sit on your hands, likely as not, somebody will come along and beat you to the draw.Rick Pedone, the sportswriter for the Osceola News-Gazette, did it in fine fashion over the weekend with his column that lionized Dave Lyon, the former Gateway High School football coach.Lyon, in case you don't track high school sports, gave it a noble effort for three years before resigning with a record of three wins and 27 losses.He wasn't asked to resign, he just figured he had had his chance and the program needed new blood.